Kering and Centre for Sustainable Fashion announce five year partnership to support young talent at LCF

The Centre for Sustainable Fashion (CSF) at London College of Fashion (LCF) and Kering, the world leader in apparel and accessories, have announced a five-year partnership to support sustainable practices and innovation in the fashion industry. Engaging LCF students, as well as designers, teaching staff, researchers and industry experts, the partnership will play a key role as an incubator for new ways of thinking about sustainable fashion.

Kering and LCF share the belief that sustainability is instrumental to the fashion industry’s evolution. Both are also committed to nurturing young talents to fuel today’s fast-growing fashion industry.

The CSF and Kering partnership will be made up of three main projects:

• The Kering Talks: each year, in October, visionaries and business leaders from the fashion industry will speak on the latest developments in the area of sustainable fashion, sharing new thinking and breakthroughs in best practice.
• The Kering Award for Sustainable Fashion: on an annual basis, Kering brands and the CSF will launch a student “contest” which will focus on a specific and real-life industry challenges. Open to all third-year BA and Masters students across the following disciplines – fashion design, management, communications – the contest will require students to provide creative and achievable solutions to a project brief defined by Kering. Two winners will be awarded a monetary grant and an internship placement within Kering brands.
• The co-development of academic modules for the sustainable design course: Kering and CSF, supported by a team of industry experts, researchers and academics, will share their business and academic expertise to create a full course module taught each year at LCF. The module will focus on the role sustainability must play today and provide them with knowledge and tools for their future professional life. This unprecedented initiative will also aim to develop a pioneering academic framework to explore sustainability in fashion, which could inspire other educational institutions in the future.

Professor Frances Corner said:

“We are absolutely delighted to be working with Kering, whose portfolio includes the world’s most respected luxury brands, on a five year partnership. Kering’s commitment to sustainability mirrors our own ethos of Better Lives – using fashion to transform lives and create a more sustainable future. Sustainability in business is no longer an adjunct; it has to be integral to a new way of working. By collaborating with Kering in three key areas, placing people and our environment at the heart of what would do, we can make real progress. Using our combined strengths as educators and business leaders, we are uniquely placed to come up with creative and transformative solutions. I look forward to seeing how our students, the fashion professionals of the future, respond to being matched with some of Kering’s biggest brands.”

François-Henri Pinault, Kering Chairman and CEO, comments:

“I am very proud to be inaugurating this partnership with London College of Fashion, which has a long history of leadership and commitment to sustainability, a value also integral to Kering’s strategy. Our shared vision on the importance of empowering young talent, combined with our industry knowledge, will encourage the next generation of fashion professionals to place sustainability at the heart of their future careers. Our collaboration will help make sustainable fashion a business reality.”

Follow the first Kering Talk given by François-Henri Pinault, Kering Chairman and CEO, on Twitter from 6pm tonight by using the hashtag #LCFxKering.

Read more…

• The Kering Award
• Our research centre the Centre for Sustainable Fashion
• Students can find all the details of how to apply for the Kering Award on the Intranet, within Careers and Employability > LCF Careers > Competitions > Kering Award.